Monthly Archives: December 2012

In many ways, it feels like we are reliving the 1970s, with the awful difference that Jimmy Carter has been re-elected. This story stimulates a sick sort of nostalgia; a hung over feeling, even though New Year’s Eve hasn’t even started yet: The privileged daughter of a prominent city doctor, and her boyfriend — a Harvard grad and Occupy Wall Street activist — have been busted for allegedly having a »

Whatever the Senate does or does not do today, it appears that the House will not vote on any cliff-related legislation tonight. There just isn’t enough time. Technically, therefore, we will go over the full fiscal cliff. Congressional action may come tomorrow or on Wednesday. After that, any action will be in the hands of a new, very slightly more Democratic Congress. December 31 was always a phony deadline. So »

Robert Costa reports that, according to senior Republican Senate aides, the tax side of the fiscal-cliff deal has been finalized. The basic framework is as follows: — Current tax rates would be permanently extended for singles making $400,000 or below, and permanently extended for couples making $450,000 or below; — For singles, capital gains and dividends of $400,000 or below would be permanently taxed at 15 percent; capital gains and »

President Obama has just completed his highly partisan remarks on fiscal cliff negotiations to a highly partisan crowd at the White House. If Obama actually wants a deal, he should hope that no Republican legislators were watching. And one can now better understand why Speaker Boehner became so frustrated after dealing on a sustained basis with this arrogant man. Stripping away Obama’s self-serving cheap shots at Congress — which some »

I frequently bait the law professoriate with the axiom that if you really want to understand constitutionalism, and the U.S. Constitution in particular, don’t take constitutional law at an elite law school. There you will only receive systematic mis-instruction in the subject.* Joe Knippenberg reminds me that my AEI colleague Walter Berns always said that the problem with law professors is that they taught constitutional law, not the Constitution. Hence »

Once “fiscal cliff” negotiations were in the hands of Mitch McConnell and Joe Biden (who replaced Harry Reid last night, apparently at McConnell’s request), the prospects of a deal improved considerably. Deals are what McConnell and Biden do. The problem is that McConnell and Biden may not be in a position to make good on any deal. John Boehner, who has been in the wings for some time, and Harry »

John O’Sullivan, former editor of National Review, senior aide to Margaret Thatcher, and former head of Radio Free Europe, is also the progenitor of what he calls “O’Sullivan’s First Law,” which holds: “All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.” As John explains: I cite as supporting evidence the ACLU, the Ford Foundation, and the Episcopal Church. The reason is, of course, that people who staff »

With Barack Obama now promising to put his “full weight” behind gun control next year, the clear response should be for the blogosphere to respond with a concerted effort to highlight how law-abiding citizens use legal weapons for self-defense and crime deterrence, and not just for hunting. It ought to be the new year’s resolution in fact. (Yes, given that the rail-thin Obama’s “full weight” wouldn’t budge a half-full Whole »

Over at NRO my daughter Eliana rescues some nearly forgotten history from the ash heap of liberal hypocrisy. She writes: The NRA’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, has been the subject of Beltway ire for his proposal to put police officers in schools across the country; the White House, lawmakers, and political analysts on both sides of the aisle have summarily denounced him. Rewind just 13 years, though, and many »

I offered 10 predictions for 2012 and didn’t do too badly, although I missed the big one (I predicted Obama wouldn’t be reelected). This year our friends at NRO invited me to submit four or five predictions for 2013 the week before last, on a few hours’ notice. Here is my response: I don’t quite know what happened this past year, but the future is a piece of cake. Looking »

Like John’s Minnesota Vikings, the Washington Redskins played a game on Sunday that they had to win to make the playoffs. Like the Vikings, the Skins were facing a hated division rival — in our case, the Dallas Cowboys. Unlike the Vikings’ situation, Washington’s opponent also needed a win in order to keep its season going. Yes, it was the Redskins and the Cowboys playing for all the NFC East »

It was Earl Warren who said, “I always turn to the sports section first. The sports page records man’s accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man’s failures.” There is a lot of truth to that, so let’s take note of one of the most remarkable sports stories of 2012: Adrian Peterson’s comeback. “All Day” came back this year from a catastrophic knee injury and made medical history, as well »

Since President Obama wants us to have a “national conversation” about gun control, I hope it’s not amiss to add some data to the chit-chat. The Sacramento Bee reports that “gun deaths and injuries have dropped sharply in California, even as the number of guns sold in the state has risen, according to new state data.” To be specific: Dealers sold 600,000 guns in California last year, up from 350,000 »

As Scott noted earlier today, “Chuck Hagel has earned the endorsement of Patrick Buchanan” (emphasis added). Scott’s daughter Eliana Johnson, an invaluable recent addition to the blogosphere, reminds us that Buchanan’s anti-Israel utterances in connection with the Gulf War caused William F. Buckley to write: I find it impossible to defend Pat Buchanan against the charge that what he did and said during the period under examination amounted to anti-Semitism, »

Watching David Gregory interview Barack Obama on Meet the Press this morning, I wondered if Obama might have offered to wash Gregory’s feet after the show. Gregory appears to be a disciple of his Lord the President. Gregory seeks to disseminate the Obama gospel. “Is this your Lincoln moment?” Gregory actually asked him. And that may not have been the worst of it. Gregory should have prefaced the broadcast of »

In an interview that was broadcast this morning, President Obama repeated his support for gun control measures: The question is are we going to be able to have a national conversation… There is that word again! We have been having a “national conversation” about gun control since before I was born. In fact, the conversation never seems to change. …and move something through Congress. Move what through Congress? It doesn’t »